After exhausting himself in the training room Arthur started to think of the options he had open to him. His lies to Emily were half-assed. This also meant he wouldn’t be seeing Emily or Brennan before he left. They wouldn’t let him leave at all the second they heard he didn’t have a plan. They have enough to worry about with their positions in their parents’ companies and the upcoming graduation. He could head to New York? He shut that down immediately. His parents had too much control in major cities. They would find him pretty easily. What about the small university he worked alongside his third year? Pembrook? Pemmington?

Arthur pulled out his phone and after a quick search found the university. Penton University in northern Wisconsin. They were located in a smaller city called Appleton just north of Lake Winnebago. Arthur had never been to Wisconsin, but right now he just needed a spot he could make some money doing what he enjoys. After a long period of research, he finally found the name of the professor he worked within the University, Professor Murphy. He was a loud, friendly Irish man that could drink anyone under a table. Making up his mind Arthur gave him a call.

“Arthur you son of a bitch! How are you doing?” The man’s gruff voice exploded from the phone causing Arthur to flinch.

“Hi, Professor Murphy. I’ve found myself in a bit of a bind. Are there any open positions up at Penton in a research capacity?” Arthur cut straight to the point.

The Irish man was angry on the other end. “I told you to call me James. It’s not like I’ve ever been your fucking teacher.” Calming down slightly he continued talking, “ I might have something for you though. How have you not been offered a spot at Falstrom? They all seem to love you there. Or I’m sure your parents would love to have you back home.”

Arthur scoffed but quickly covered it up, “Yeahh none of that is really an option at the moment. It’s a bit of a long story. I don’t have much time to make this happen. Will the position be available in the next couple days?”

Silence met Arthur from the other line. It was a few seconds later before James spoke, “It’s that bad, huh? I think I can come up with something. Just get up here as soon as possible.”

Arthur smiled slightly, “Thanks, James. I owe you one.”

James laughed and said, “You owe me more than one at this point you bastard. I’ll see you soon.” With that, the call ended. Arthur picked up his backpack on the floor and made his way out of the academy.

A few hours later he was walking up to the train station. He chose an older method of transportation in order to avoid any identification issues that might come with using the teleportation systems. He couldn’t afford to be careless. It wasn’t until he was close to the train station that he saw two familiar figures waiting out front. A short muscular girl with golden hair and a tall lanky guy looking straight at him. Arthur froze in his tracks and quickly turned around to begin walking the other way. A hand landed heavily on his shoulder.

“You can’t get away that easily.” Brennan was right behind him looking more serious than Arthur had ever seen him before. Emily quickly caught up as well, but instead of saying anything she just punched Arthur right on the bridge of his nose.

“Fuck!” He swore as blood began gushing out. A quick healing spell from Brennan fixed the break, but the blood running down his face and shirt wouldn’t be as easy to take care of. The familiar taste of iron overtook his sense as the blood drained down into his mouth.

Emily was tearing up now as she looked up at Arthur, “You promised. You just promised you wouldn’t do this.” It was surprisingly cold for early May as sharp gusts of wind hit Arthur in the back causing him to involuntarily shiver.

Arthur looked at the angry, crying face of Emily and glanced over at Brennan for help. Arthur was met with an equally angry yet less teary gaze. He wasn’t sure what else he could say other than, “I’m sorry.” He choked out the words as if they were difficult to say. To many people they often were.

Gathering his thoughts more carefully he was able to add more breaking the short silence. “There’s more to my situation than I’ve been letting on. I just need to…get away. I’m still not sure if I’ll have a permanent place to stay yet. It wouldn’t be fair to either of you to get you involved. You two have your own issues to handle.” Brennan stepped up this time.

“Of course we have our own shit to deal with. That doesn’t mean we can’t make time for yours. Come on.” In a move that was characteristically unlike him, Brennan grabbed Emily and me on the shoulders and teleported us into a clearing within a thickly wooded area. The setting sun cast orange and yellow rays through the trees and they danced across the ground oblivious to the atmosphere around them. The clearing had three sleeping bags set up and a fire already set up. The flames, a bright blue, leaped up and out as if striving to reach the abundance of trees just out of reach. Blue flames indicated a magical fire had been set. One that would not go out naturally.

Brennan walked over to a small chair set up next to the fire and slumped into it. The light cast from the flames made him look even more worn down than usual. “This was meant to be a more pleasant surprise, but welcome to our first hunt.” He threw his hands up in a mock celebration.

Arthur looked at both Emily and Brennan in surprise. “How? What? How did you get permission? Even you two should have trouble going out on a hunt before graduation.” Brennan smiled, “You shouldn’t underestimate the power of our families just because yours is so abnormal.” Arthur nodded in acceptance. “That’s great! I’m excited for the both of you. I truly am.” His voice faded away as another question popped into his head. “Wouldn’t having me here cause both of you a ton of problems later on? Bringing anyone without proper certification could end up with all of us in jail.”

Emily now joined Brennan at the fire. Her tears had dried up, but she refused to look at Arthur. She just continued to stare into the blue flames leaping up in front of her. “Since when would any of us care about that?” Her voice was barely audible, but both Brennan and Arthur flinched slightly when she spoke up.

Arthur now joined the two of them at the fire, weighing his options. It didn’t take long for him to reach a decision. “Well, I’m not in a huge rush. I also have no idea where we are and how to get back so I would love to join the two of you. What are we hunting?”

At that Brennan handed him a yellowed piece of paper. The age of the paper was impossible to guess. It felt as though the letter would crumble under any amount of pressure applied to it. At first glance, it looked blank, but focusing magical energy into the letter made bright runic symbols appear slowly across the page. Reading and writing runes were a necessity for magicians and was taught at a very young age yet some runes Arthur couldn’t recognize.

“I can see that the hunt is in Albania and it has a goddamn A rating for fucks sake. How did you even get a hold of this? No one, not even with your parents’ influence, would let students go on a suicide mission.” Brennan laughed and nudged Emily. “I called it! Exactly the response I was expecting.” Emily just gave a half-hearted smile before downcast expression appeared once more.

Brennan reached back over and snatched the page from Arthur causing the runes to fade away once more. “We’re hunting The Imp.” He said with a smile on his face. “Even an Elder Imp shouldn’t be much trouble for us. The difficulty lies in catching it. As you two know my magic specializes in tracking and movement so we shouldn’t have any difficulties. The experience we gain will also give Emily and me a huge boost moving forward. That won’t be a driving force for you though, huh?” He addressed Arthur at the end knowing his issues with the status screen.

Arthur waved it off. “The money would still be nice. I bet my parents have already frozen my accounts. Is this meant as some last hurrah for the three of us?”

Brennan shrugged and replied, “Not initially, but I doubt Emily and I will be able to stop you when all is said and done.” He then reached behind him to a cooler Arthur had failed to notice before. A beer was then thrown to both Emily and Arthur as Brennan raised his dark brown bottle. “To the three impossibles of Falstrom. May our powers always remain a mystery to those around us.” All three raised their beers, although Emily did so begrudgingly. As the three bottles were about to touch above the blue flames, time seemed to stop.